Ring Shout: Grito de Liberdade

by P. Djèlí Clark, Bruno Ribeiro (Translator )

Na América do Norte, demônios usam capuzes brancos

Em 1915, o filme O Nascimento de uma Nação, de D. W. Griffith, lança um feitiço em toda a América do Norte, engrossando as fileiras da Ku Klux Klan e bebendo profundamente dos pensamentos mais sinistros dos brancos. Por todo o país eles cavalgam, espalhando medo e violência entre os vulneráveis, planejando trazer o inferno para a Terra. Mas até os demônios podem morrer.

É neste cenário que Ring Shout: Grito de Liberdade se desenvolve, com companheiros de resistência se armando com lâminas e bombas para caçar seus caçadores e mandar os demônios da Klan direto para o inferno. Situado em um mundo histórico alternativo de Macon, Geórgia, em 1922, a protagonista Maryse Boudreaux se divide entre a venda de uísque contrabandeado durante a época da Lei Seca e a luta contra os monstros a quem ela chama de “Ku Kluxes”, com sua espada mágica, a cabeça cheia de histórias e a companhia de Sadie e Cordy. Mas para enfrentar esse mal recorrente, Maryse precisa viajar entre estes universos e encarar pesadelos sobrenaturais – além dos seus próprios demônios – para tentar livrar o mundo do ódio que o consumiria.

O novo título da DarkSide® Books em parceria com a Macabra Filmes, selo que apresenta histórias ainda mais assustadoras da realidade e da ficção, arrematou os prêmios Nebula, Locus, Alex e British Fantasy, e foi finalista nos prêmios Hugo, World Fantasy, Ignyte, Shirley Jackson, AAMBC, SIBA e Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy. Inspirado por Toni Morrison e Madeleine L'Engle, o autor P. Djèlí Clark — dono de uma narrativa brutal e ágil, mas que transborda magia e encanto — envolve os leitores nesta história de horror extremamente original, com cenas de ação ritmadas e hipnotizantes, que em breve serão adaptadas para uma série de TV por Kasi Lemmons (Harriet, 2019), com Kiki Layne (Se a Rua Beale Falasse, 2018) no papel da destemida e incansável protagonista desta obra.

A edição brasileira desta fantasia histórica dark chega aos leitores mais exigentes com tradução de Bruno Ribeiro, autor de Porco de Sangue — romance vencedor em sua categoria no Prêmio Machado DarkSide®, de 2020 — e texto complementar de Anne Quiangala, doutoranda e mestra em teoria literária pela Universidade de Brasília.

Uma dança capaz de evocar as origens de uma luta que nunca terminou, obra transgressora e um dos livros mais aguardados pelos darksiders, Ring Shout: Grito de Liberdade é uma jornada brutal e criativa que proporciona reflexões preciosas em meio aos recorrentes contextos políticos e sociais conturbados, com seus males sobrenaturais e sobretudo demasiado humanos. Prepare-se para encher o inferno de capuzes brancos.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Novella, Audiobook, Historical

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2020

About the author

Phenderson Djèlí Clark.

Phenderson Djéli Clark is the author of the novel A Master of Djinn, and the award-winning and Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon nominated author of the novellas Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. His short stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies including, Griots and Hidden Youth. You can find him on Twitter at @pdjeliclark and his blog The Disgruntled Haradrim.

Reviews

[megs_bookrack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ohhhhh baby, this audiobook is so freaking good!!!



The historical elements of Ring Shout are extremely well done. The SFF elements, fantastic. The body horror and gore, top notch. The narration, PERFECTION!



Maryse Boudreaux is a Georgia-bootlegger, with a magic sword and a penchant for hunting monsters.

The monsters in question, known as Ku Kluxes, are plotting to unleash hell on Earth, using D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation to channel their message of hate to the masses.

Maryse, along with her fellow monster-hunting friends, think the world has enough problems, they don't need any more challenges to overcome.



They set out to rid the South of this blight and save the world from the evil that wishes to consume it.

Clark packs a punch with this novella. There were many important, and timely, details to consume. The narrator helped to channel life, and emotional power into the story.

I'm not sure I would have felt as strongly about had I read a hard copy. The narration was that imperative to the story.



I loved the historical feel of the story, as well, and how there were strong elements of the fantastical mixed with real life horrors.

I thought it was expertly-balanced to provide maximum impact; especially towards the end when the final showdown ensues.



Maryse and her friends were fantastic, but Butcher Clyde was an incredible villain. He stole the show.

My goodness! He was horrifying. Well, him and his minions both.



I highly recommend this novella, particularly the audiobook. It's a quick read, but so worth picking up. If you're not sold yet, perhaps a few of my favorite lines will entice you:

'This one carries the anger of her people. Pure, yet untapped. We could do much with this.'

'What we owe this world? Why save it, when its never done a thing to save us?'



I can't wait to read more from this author. This was an all-around fantastic story!

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is weird how so many books are being published right now that were obviously written well before the current load of crap hit the fan, but which speak to global events with an urgency and a directness that seems quite prophetic.

The plot of this novella can be summed up in a few lines: “D.W. Griffith is a sorcerer, and The Birth of a Nation is a spell that drew upon the darkest thoughts and wishes from the heart of America. Now, rising in power and prominence, the Klan has a plot to unleash Hell on Earth.” If that doesn’t immediately grab your attention …

Having read most of PDC’s previous tor.com novellas, I must admit to not being quite sold on this one from the get-go. With very real blood being spilled on the streets of America, isn’t it trivialising to (re)imagine the KKK as a bunch of Lovecraftian monsters, when we see very ordinary-looking monsters on our television screens every day?

I did not know that PDC is the pseudonym for Dexter Gabriel, whom I have not read before. Apparently the two names are used for his fiction and non-fiction respectively. To confuse matters even further, he has also used A. Phenderson Clark. It kind of reminds me of Samuel R. Delany and his K. Leslie Steiner alter ego.

I also did not know that PDC “works as an academic historian whose research spans comparative slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic world”. It definitely explains the rich vein of historicity that runs throughout Ring Shout, including the Tulsa massacre.

This was highlighted in Damon Lindelof’s superlative HBO series Watchmen, and of course announced as the venue for Trump’s next campaign rally at end June … Ah, imagine if only one of the slavering KKK monsters from Ring Shout can make an appearance there and lay waste to the proceedings!

Ring Shout is such a terrific read that you are likely to gobble up its under 200 pages in one sitting. The ‘body horror’ dreamt up by PDC here is some of the most intense he has ever conjured up, and is enough to make David Cronenberg blush.

Underpinning the novella is an intense discussion about what turns ordinary people into monsters, and how everyone is grappling with their own demons, both personal and institutional. None of this subtext is forced down the reader’s throat, which makes you wonder if the underlying message is likely to go over many people’s heads.

But I don’t think so. Genre readers are generally very savvy (we’ll ignore the right-wing Sad Puppies). Fantasy, SF and horror have always been ideal vehicles to explore concepts of otherness, intersectionality and privilege.

I think what Ring Shout’s Lovecraftian excess also highlights is just how crazy and polarised the world is at the moment. Here the KKK’s innate badness is underscored by them being inter-dimensional bad asses. Thus we root for the good guys even more, and every hacked-off monster limb and bit of flesh makes us cheer. That ending alone is bound to get a fist-pump from every single reader.

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

a girl and her resistance fighters hunting ku klux members? how have i not read this yet

unfortunately the answer is that that concept is just better than the execution to me.

the writing style wasn't quite my cup of tea, and the plot — starting out with action, followed by several chapters of nothing, followed by a too-swift end because this book is very short — was not structured in a way to overcome that.

although i did like the nightmare sequences. i can appreciate a good old-fashioned spookfest.

bottom line: a little bit too good to be true.

[BlackOxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revenge For What They Done

Slavery is the worst crime against humanity ever committed by a country now infamous for its successfully orchestrated coups around the world, its rather less successfully prosecuted wars, and its consistent support for oppressive regimes as long as they protected its business interests. So a bit of historical context for this novel is essential.

Many consider the abolition of slavery in America a virtuous act. It wasn’t. The Emancipation Proclamation was an expediency of war. The promise of “40 acres and a mule” made by the conquering General Sherman to freed slaves was rescinded by the slave-owning successor to Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson, leaving them with no economic resources. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1868 (essentially by force), was effectively nullified by the Jim Crow laws and did far more for the abstract person of the American corporation than for the well-being of black American citizens. The Civil Rights laws of the 1960’s were resented by almost half the white population of the country, had to be enforced through the military and federal prosecutors, and have been eroded continuously to the present day. “Reason and law don’t mean much when white folk want their way,” as one of Djèli’s characters says.

White resentment in America has now transformed itself into a narrative of victimhood. Since an appreciation of irony is not a common (white) American trait, one might say that for the most part such victimhood is merely a matter of apathy, mis-education, casual self-interest, or stupidity. But there is a hard core that is passionately committed to violent racism. It is this kernel of hate that creates and sustains the victim narrative, continuously invents new threats for white people from black people, and routinely carries out crimes against black people ranging from police harassment to murder. These people are monsters.

These monsters are the focal point of Djèli Clark’s book. His monsters aren’t just produced by unfortunate environmental circumstances, that is, parental training and social emulation. Cultural racists are merely Kluxes. A sort of Lamarckian evolution has taken place in some, however, so that racial hatred is now embedded in their genes. They pass on their monsterhood, as it were, to their children, who now form a substantial gene-pool of rock solid , incorrigible hate. There is no re-education or re-habilitation that can alter their drive to destroy black people. They are also very difficult to kill. Like Zombies, they can loose limbs and organs while continuing to pose a threat. These are the Ku Kluxes who have even evolved pointy heads that fit nicely into Klan hoods.

In the early 1920’s, the period of the novel, there were probably at least 3 million former slaves alive in the United States. They, and their children and their children’s children, were disenfranchised, denied due process of law, physically isolated, and systematically oppressed by every agency of government. Their legal status had changed but their existential reality had not. There had recently been massacres of black people in Tulsa, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington DC, and in rural Arkansas, Texas, and Florida. The same Ku Kluxers were in charge as had been the half century before, and the two centuries before that under other titles but with the same monster genes. And they continue to evolve, getting cleverer all the time about the vulnerabilities of black folk, knowing more and more about “the places where we hurt.”

It is necessary to “have the sight” in order to spot the Ku Kluxes in a crowd. They are “the Lie running ‘round as the Truth.” Together they form the “Invisible Empire” of white supremacy. That empire is managed from elsewhere, by a force not of this world, by the devil himself. And so supernatural help is essential to combat them. This is a battle for the soul of the world, a spiritual war. And it not just one of many confrontations with evil, but rather the deciding war, equivalent to that recounted in Milton’s Paradise Lost, only with Satan leading his mob while waving a copy of the Bible. So forget your government help, your socialist heaven and your evangelical apocalypse. This here is the place to be. “They say God is good all the time. Seem he also likes irony.”

[Farrah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1920's Georgia, Maryse, Sadie and Chef are a bad-a$$ monster-hunting trio.
The release of the film Birth Of A Nation has opened a rift between worlds and hate-fuelled demons, known as Ku Klux, have crossed over and it's up to Maryse, her friends and her magical sword to stop them.

RING SHOUT is a BRILLIANT concept. It uses real historical facts and blends them with fantasy to show how strongly hate breeds hate and creates monsters.

It's well paced with tons of action but it also knows when to ease up for character development and the ending is spectacular!
I really loved this 4.5⭐

[Peter Topside · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a tremendous horror story! It was extremely original, action-packed, yet well-paced, and not without a lot of heart and deep symbolism. Maryse Boudreaux is one kick ass female lead and I really found myself being genuinely invested in her character. Her struggles, traumas, anger, and ability to endure it all to fight was something that made me unable to put the story down. The details of all the various creatures and the hierarchy of the antagonists was very unique and well done, too. I found myself reading Butcher Clyde's dialogue out loud! My only critique is that I wish it was a little longer, which is just my personal preference, because I enjoyed it so much.

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit cautious approaching this novella, even after P. Djèlí Clark’s lovely The Haunting of Tram Car 015 captivated me earlier this year. First of all, this seemed quite horror-ish, and I’m a bit wary about that (shut up, I read Stephen King for the articles - I mean, character development and storytelling - not for the gory bits). Second, I’m always a bit cautious with fictionalization of actual historical events, let alone horrific things like KKK.

But my caution ended up completely unfounded.

“With all the flag-waving and cavorting, you might forget they was monsters.
But I hunt monsters. And I know them when I see them.”

It’s an alternative 1922 Jim Crow South, where the horrific acts of KKK are still beyond horrific (it’s set only a year after Tulsa Massacre), but with the added caveat - the hatred of the Klansmen allows for their possession by Ku Kluxes, demonic (and suitably Lovecraftian) monstrosities that use the atrocities committed for their own feedings and bloodshed. The awfulnesses of our world, such as horrifyingly racist but much lauded in its time movie “Birth of a Nation” here, in addition to inspiring KKK resurgence, serves as a conduit for the monstrosities into our world, to add to our homegrown human monsters.

“You see, the Second Klan was birthed on November 25 back in 1915. What we call D-Day, or Devil’s Night—when William Joseph Simmons, a regular old witch, and fifteen others met up on Stone Mountain east of Atlanta. Stories say they read from a conjuring book inked in blood on human skin. Can’t vouch for that. But it was them that called up the monsters we call Ku Kluxes. And it all started with this damned movie.”

Novellas are tricky, I often note. The short length is not forgivable to poor pacing, but they are long enough to still demand satisfying story and character development. Clark managed it easily in Tram 015, and he pretty much nails it here. It’s very action-heavy, throwing us right into the thick of things from the first page, and relies on action for most of it — but characterization is deftly inserted in compact yet resonating bits, moving the story along while still providing enough soul to let me actually care. Yes, I still wish it was given a few more pages to breathe and develop a few backstories just a tad more, but even without that “more” it was still very satisfying and quite atmospheric.

I was wary that adding monsters to the actual, real, atrocities could cheapen them, allowing to shift the blame and guilt on external corrupting influences, but I underestimated Clark. People are the true monsters, as we all know, and he makes it loud and clear. There’s no false hope that killing a few outwardly creatures would magically give us all healing and solidarity and fix the issues that run deep.

“That’s science talk for how Klan folk turn Ku Klux. Molly says it’s like an infection, or a parasite. And it feed on hate. She says chemicals in the body change up when you hate strong. When the infection meets that hate, it starts growing until it’s powerful enough to turn the person Ku Klux. Ask me, it’s plain evil them Klans let in, eating them up until they hollow inside. Leave behind bone-white demons who don’t remember they was men.”

And Clark deftly adds a history lesson for those of us who, like me, were not aware that there’s is basically a fragging Mount Rushmore for the confederacy folks fighting for preservation of slavery. WTF Stone Mountain and your carvings of Confederate leaders? So often I’m coddled in protective blanket of blissful ignorance.

And yeah, it’s gory enough. But, in all honesty, if body horror in this one makes you cringe more than actual history does, then you should reread this book again, more carefully.

“I can feel the heat of that anger rising, hot enough to burn. In my head are all the visions I ever seen. Men, women, and children who look like me, under the lash, in chains, whipped until the flesh hanging from their bones, hurt so bad their souls cry out. This why they chose me. Because I carry not just the anger of what I seen with my own eyes but centuries of anger—growing up in me.”

Another thing I appreciated was subtlety and the message that I wasn’t exactly expecting, having been swept up into the story and burning with righteous indignation and such, at the point when even my inner pacifist was rolling up her sleeves for a fight. And instead Clark made me think, made me ponder the roots of anger versus hatred, and the thin but important line separating the two, and it was done very well.

“The places where we hurt. Where we hurt. Not just me, all of us, colored folk everywhere, who carry our wounds with us, sometimes open for all to see, but always so much more buried and hidden deep. I remember the songs that come with all those visions. Songs full of hurt. Songs of sadness and tears. Songs pulsing with pain. A righteous anger and cry for justice.
But not hate.
They ain’t the same thing. Never was. These monsters want to pervert that. Turn it to their own ends. Because that’s what they do. Twist you all up so that you forget yourself. Make you into something like them. Only I can’t forget, because all those memories always with me, showing me the way.”

4 stars. This is a very likely contender for Hugo and Nebula this awards season. Clark is very good.

———
Buddy read with carol. You are awesome, reading buddy!

“We apologize for calling on you at this late hour,” Auntie Ondine says. “We tried to wait until you completed your physical intimacies with your beau.”

———————

Edit: Well-deserved Nebula win, Mr. Clark!
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[carol. · Rating 5 out of 5]

“My heart catches. The Ku Kluxes are moving! The big one sitting up, feeling at his caved-in chest. The portly one’s stirring too, looking to his missing arm. But it’s the lanky one that jumps up first, face half gone so that you can see bone showing. His good eye rolls around til it lands on me and he opens his mouth to let out a screech that ain’t no ways human. That’s when I know, things about to get bad.”

Ring Shout is Clark’s entry in the revisionist Lovecraft genre, and I have to say, it ranks as one of my favorites by far. A novella set in Macon, Georgia, somewhen around 1922, it focuses on a band of Black Americans who are doing their best to prevent the Ku Kluxes from making inroads into society. The monster Ku Kluxes, that is.

I’ve been entirely engrossed in almost everything I’ve read by Clark as I’ve made my way through his back catalog, so the release of Ring Shout is a welcome addition. A solid novella, it moves quickly, springing into action, then giving a bit of a breather to catch up on the world and the plot. The characters feel fleshed out enough for a novella, although I’m always left wanting more details in his stories.

Two hesitations. One character speaks in a Gullah accent, which is serious work to parse out. I’ve noticed it tends to be confusing for my non-American born reader friends. Honestly, friends–it’s confusing for the American ones too, so you aren’t alone. Secondly, there’s a psychological angle that was kept as a late ‘reveal’ that was somewhat underwhelming for both Nataliya and I. I’m not saying I want more horror, but it seemed boilerplate, which I did not expect from Clark.

Clark has done something very, very clever here, and I’ll have to put much of it under spoilers, but suffice it to say that he’s also snuck in a ton of information about American history, particularly parts that pertain to Black Americans that have been largely ignored by history books. I’m particularly history impaired, and I had to rely on my fabulous co-reader Nataliya and Google because I wasn’t quite sure what was actual history and what was made up.

How twisted and horrific is that?

Extremely racist and very real things that are mentioned in the book.:

The Birth of A Nation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bir... Just... yucky. To find out it is lauded at one of the 'great' movie endeavors of all time? Extra-yuck.

Woodrow Wilson and government conspiracies: as President, allowed an early screening of The Birth of A Nation at the White House. Despite being elected with African-American help, he refused to speak out against a wave of lynchings. He also appointed a KKK member to Secretary of the Navy, and the armed forces were increasingly segregated under his Presidency. For a more 'neutral' analysis of race relations, midway down the section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow...

Stone Mountain, GA, IS a real place. The quarry owner offered it to the KKK 'in perpetuity' to gather. They did for the next 40 years until the State took ownership and condemned the property, thus removing the rights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_M...

Tulsa race massacre: you probably know this as an American horror of how "good white Christians" can be evil people, but in case you didn't, you should read up. And prepare to be horrified: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_r...

Trotter, one of the original founders of the NAACP, who was partly behind the 'movie theater in Boston incident' that was a real thing as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...


Read it if you are into eldritch horror, urban fantasy, time-period fantasy, Kindred, or a whole host of other books I’ll probably have to add later as memory permits. I’m calling it slightly less than 5 stars at the moment for technical reasons–my 5 stars tend to be re-reads, and I’m not entirely sure I want to re-read this one soon. Like Connolly, it’s challenging and powerful, but not a comfort read.

Thank you to Nataliya for the buddy read and the research!

Note: audio recommended

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

CAN I SQUEEZE IN ONE MORE SPOOKTOBER BOOK?

I COULD!!!!

***************************

"Girl, every choice we make is a new tomorrow. Whole worlds waiting to be born."

i liked this more than i didn't, with its strong female characters, its Lovecraft Country vibes, and that cover is DIVINE, but OOFA, it's a lot, and i know full well this is a dick thing to say, but honestly, this book shoulda been either longer or shorter.

hear me out!

i think i would have found it easier to take in if it had been either a short story, with some darlings killed judiciously, or a full-on novel where the oh-so-many elements crowded into its slim form would have had more room to breathe. because this puppy is crammed to the rafters with history, mythology, and monsters.

"The enemy has more minions than we know." oh, man, you're telling me! in a mere 181 pages, this history/horror mashup has ku kluxes (which are different from klansmen; an additional monstrosity), butcher clyde, the aunties, the night doctors, the grand cyclops, the Chosen One and her magical sword, includes tulsa, darwin, br'er rabbit, and birth of a nation, not to mention all the mouths and tentacles and creepy meat. it's a lot to digest (heh).

the characters are great—i adored the three monster-fighting women: chef and sadie and maryse boudreaux, wielder of the magical sword. they are fierce and vibrant and funny, all bicker and banter in between monster-slaying.

and there's some excellent writing—i have trouble with action sequences, especially when tentacles are involved, so those parts were never going to wow me, but i could at least follow them, which for me is something. but everything concerned with power and pain and being haunted by personal and historical past; about rage and justice and the weaponization of hate—it was tremendous and powerful, and it eventually lands on a message of dignity and strength which is optimistic, despite everything in this book's world, and our own.

but i'm the kind of reader that, once you start slipping into multiple permeable realms, once you start introducing one supernatural foe or ally after another, it starts to get a little murky for me and i need more than 181 pages to take it all in.

maybe this will be like binti or the kai ashanti wilson novellas and tor will publish a whole series of them and i'll be better able to get a handle on all the moving parts, because i liked it, i just felt a bit overwhelmed.

come to my blog!

[Esta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clark explores some of the most deeply depraved crimes against humanity, using supernatural horror and dark fantasy to delve into real-life history.

Here, the white-hooded monsters of the KKK become literal monsters with a not-too-in-your-face parallel of today’s society reflecting the insidious nature of white supremacy that allow it to shapeshift often, whether it’s police officers continuing to kill people in America at an alarming rate post-George Floyd, or in White House politics.

A powerful and timely novel that will stay with you long after you've turned the final page. Highly recommend. 4.5 stars.

Full review.

[Katie Colson · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️4.5

What the F*CK did I just read?

This was one of those glorious moments where I didn't read the summary or know anything going in.
I was shocked by every reveal and confused in the best way.

I live very close to Stone Mountain and could see every setting and experience the characters had.

This book is wild. It's my kind of weird.

This book is good but I am giving it such a high rating because it made me feel something. I was engaged. I cared. I was excited to read. And that deserves 5 stars in my opinion.

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+ stars. Review first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:

In Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark melds two types of horror, Lovecraftian monsters and the bloody rise of the Ku Klux Klan in 1922 Georgia, as a group of black resistance fighters take on an enemy with frightening supernatural powers.

As Ku Klux Klan members march down the streets of Macon, Georgia on the Fourth of July, Maryse Boudreaux, who narrates the story, watches from a rooftop with her two companions, sharpshooter Sadie and former soldier Cordelia “Chef” Lawrence, a bomb expert. They’ve baited a trap for the “Ku Kluxes,” who are hellish demons that hide in disguise among the Klan humans, taking over the bodies of the worst of them. The trap works, but the silver pellets and iron slags contained in the bomb aren’t enough to kill the three monsters that rise out of the wreckage and their human outer veneers. It takes more to kill a Ku Klux.

Since The Birth of a Nation had come out seven years earlier, in 1915, susceptible white folk surrendered to the spell of hatred woven by the groundbreaking silent film with its message of white supremacy and KKK heroism, lending manpower to the KKK and spiritual power to evil demons. Now The Birth of a Nation is getting a grand rerelease at Stone Mountain, a Georgia park honoring the Confederacy, in a few days. The spirits that frequently commune with Maryse let her know that this will cause a massive rise of evil and hatred, a rift that the demonic powers can use to fully inhabit and take over our world.

Ring Shout is little hard to wade through at times, with lots of idiomatic speech. Otherwise, though, this is powerful stuff. H.P. Lovecraft’s eldritch monsters and, more, his infamous racism lend themselves well to a plot centered on the infiltration of the KKK — and from there, our world — by unearthly, destructive powers that use our weaknesses against us. Opposing them are lively, earthy blacks and their sympathizers, many of whom have their own supernatural connections, primarily arising out of African traditions and folklore. Among these are Maryse’s magical sword and the Ring Shout, a ritual gathering involving song and dance. It’s “about surviving slavery times, praying for freedom, and calling on God to end that wickedness.”

Clark’s novella also points out the seductive power of hatred and rage, and how they can twist good to bad. “A righteous anger and a cry for justice,” Maryse realizes, aren’t the same thing at all as hate.

These monsters want to pervert that. Turn it to their own ends. Because that’s what they do. Twist you all up so that you forget yourself. Make you into something like them.

In Ring Shout, Clark deftly uses a historical and fantastical setting, characters and motifs to create a novella that’s both timeless and timely, with a powerful message for all.

Thanks to Tor for the ARC!

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark is the perfect fantasical horror story to pull you away from the real life one we’ve been living this week.

Set almost a hundred years ago in Macon, Georgia, Ring Shout follows Maryse Boudreaux, a monster slayer who is hunting the KKK. Not just Klan members, though, but a particularly heinous type of demon that walks around in human skin. They’re called Ku Kluxes, and they have infiltrated one of the most hateful organizations in the last 100 years of American history. Maryse, along with Chef, a former soldier and bomb specialist, and Sadie, one of the sharpest shooters in Georgia, are tasked with taking these creatures out before they hurt anyone else.

The historical context of this novella is amazingly done, with much of what was happening in the US in 1922 front and center in the story. The dangerously racist The Birth of a Nation has insighted violence and rebirthed much of the dormant Klan during this period. It’s a revelation among the white masses looking for someone to blame, and some of the most effective and lasting white supremacist propaganda to come out of the twentieth century.

P. Djèlí Clark brilliantly blends reality with this type of dark fantasy and has created a really poignant story for America in 2020. My only complaint is it’s short, obviously since it’s a novella, so I do feel like a lot of the plot had a more rushed feel. That said, there is absolutely no skimping on characterization or action, and everything flowed nicely, if a little quickly. There’s definitely potential for both an adaptation and a sequel here, so I will be looking to see if either of those end up happening.

[Brandon Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this in one sitting today! So action packed with an *incredibly* satisfying ending.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

WINNER, IGNYTE, LOCUS and BRITISH FANTASY AWARDS: BEST NOVELLA, 2021!

FINALIST, WORLD FANTASY AWARD: BEST NOVELLA, 2021!

Would been five stars without the damned w-bombs. Nine, maybe even ten! Crapped on my loving like seagulls on a picnic.

Anyway, it wasn't *all* bad. Go look.

And THANKS, NETGALLEY!! (And Tor.com Publishing, of course.)

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm honestly blown away by the craftsmanship of this book. It is a textbook perfectly executed novella, and I am beyond delighted & impressed by how much plot, world building, character work, and thematic content Clark develops over the course of this story. I think if you read the description, you'll get a sense of if this a book that intrigues you, and if so-- just go ahead & read it. I don't think you'll be disappointed. With the ending, seems like there is a door for there to be a sequel, which I dearly hope we get!

[myo ⋆｡˚ ❀ * · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was very ambitious when you really think about it but it actually ended up being executed perfectly.

[Jonathan O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐

No doubt about it, my friends, P. Djèlí Clark been gettin’ involved in some o’ that Lowcountry Voodoo! A ‘gator tooth here, a pinch of goofer dust there, season with a dash of sulphur and the blood of a Ku Klux and BOOM, you got it bruh rabbit, the genre-bending novella, Ring Shout. A tempestuous amalgamation of Fantasy, Horror, African-American folklore and Gullah culture, set in 1920s prohibition-era Georgia with an expository lens focused squarely on racism in the South, the hate that feeds it and is, subsequently, fed by it.


***MINOR SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT***


There’s not much I didn’t like about this novella. All of the main characters have very individual and endearing qualities and importantly have unique voices from one another.
Sadie is a tobacco chewin’, Winchester-totin’ conspiracy theorist with zero filter.
Chef fought in France after disguising herself as a man to fight amongst the ‘Harlem Hellfighters’ (an infantry regiment consisting mainly of African-Americans) as an explosives specialist during WW1.
Maryse Boudreaux is our chosen one who struggles with a dark past and… prepare yourself, this is awesome!... Wields a sword, powered by the spirits of the plundered and enslaved from centuries past. There’s more to it than that but suffice to say, every time the sword is wielded, it is both an act of revenge and an opportunity for redemption.

”The way they all turn my way, eyes glittering, easy to figure out who they here for. I raise my sword and let it sing.”

The support cast is no less diverse and likeable, ranging anywhere from Emma Krauss, The German Socialist, to Nana Jean who speaks a Gullah dialect that is nigh on impossible to comprehend and often requires doubling-back. The only criticism I have is that there are too many female characters. I just found it a bit sexist…. Ha, gotchya! Just mucking around, having a bit of fun, keeping it fresh! In all seriousness, it was very refreshing. Even being written by a man, I find female characters, more often than not, provide a more compassionate and less egotistic POV, which enables me to feel a larger degree of empathy for them.


The dialogue between characters is consistently entertaining and is allowed to really shine during the only real downtime of the novella, in which the gang hang up the Ku Klux slaying boots for a night of frivolity at Frenchy’s Juke Joint.


“Hard to believe your grandpappy was a preacher,” Chef calls over.
Sadie snorts, flicking back her long braid. ”It ain’t Sunday. Grandpappy, rest his soul, won’t mind none.”


References to African American Folklore and customs pertaining to the Gullah people of the South had me constantly rushing off to find out if they were pure Fantasy or grounded in real-world lore. I feel like I’m displaying a bit of double-standards here as I recently criticised a Fantasy series for taking me out of the story so often by following real-world history very closely. I think it comes down to the fact that I have almost zero knowledge in the subjects that are brought up in this book, so rather than pull me out of the story, it drove me to research and served to further immerse me. This is why these things are so subjective.

Ring Shout: “A shout or ring shout is an ecstatic, transcendent religious ritual, first practiced by African slaves in the West Indies and the United States, in which worshipers move in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands”. I was curious as to whether the Ring Shout had anything to do with Black Gospel or Pentecostal churches and their worship through song and, lo and behold, the practice was indeed adopted by Christian churches. In fact, it’s even argued that “field hollers, work songs, and spirituals evolved [from this practice], followed by blues and jazz”. Clark merges the titular Ring Shout with elements of Root Magic or “Lowcountry voodoo” lending it an almost mythical spiritual power.

African-American folklore, of which I know next to nothing, is represented brilliantly. I’m a sucker for anything Mythology/Folklore and was so intrigued by things like the Boo hag (Google this, it will haunt you), Night Doctors, Bruh Rabbit and Bruh Bear and, to my great joy, there is a profound depth to this particular tradition of storytelling and oral history. I’m looking forward to reading ‘The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales’ by Virginia Hamilton very soon.
”When Bruh Bear and Bruh Lion get to fighting… Bruh Rabbit best steer clear!”


Clark takes the insidious nature and history of the Klu Klax Klan and adds an element of sorcery to it with a sinister force that encourages and feeds on the hate of the Klansmen, transforming the individuals who most delight in their hate, into literal monsters called Klu Klaxes. Clark explores the dangers of letting hate consume our hearts and minds. One of my favourite quotes from the book is really a commentary on the invalidity of the hate that white supremacists are consumed by:

”You see, the hate they give is senseless. They already got power. Yet they hate those over who they got control, who don’t pose a threat to them. Their fears aren’t real – just insecurities and inadequacies. Deep down they know that. Makes their hate like… watered-down whiskey.”


Two Final Thoughts:
1. How did the brutal massacre at Frenchy’s Juke Joint, combined with the fact that the building was engulfed in flames, not attract the attention of the police?
2. Did we get a D’Angelo reference in 1920’s Georgia?

”New players on the board perhaps,” Auntie Ondine murmurs, tapping her chin. ”Playa, playa,” Aunty Jadine (whom can only speak in song) hums devilishly, a bit of tongue peeking between foxy teeth.….. Auntie Jadine, you bad!


A phenomenal novella. A middle-finger thrill-ride that covers some challenging topics while still managing to be funny enough for my fiancé to repeatedly ask me, “why you smiling like a freak?” Read it immediately. I’ll be standing here, arms folded, foot tapping, looking as disappointed as your parents when you told them you were dropping out of school to become an Instagram model, until you do. *Instagram models, be at ease, this is a judgement-free zone*

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original Review available at Cemetery Dance
https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/...
I read a brief tagline for Ring Shout that was along the lines of, “a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan’s reign of terror” and I was sold. I love everything the tagline promises: Dark Fantasy. Historical Fiction. Novella. Supernatural. Give me all of those things.

Ring Shout not only delivered on these promises, but it also flew past all of my expectations making this book a solid contender for my favorite book of 2020.

The most important aspect of my reading experience with Ring Shout is that I read it on my Kindle and I could highlight a specific mention in the book so that a definition or Wikipedia entry would get pulled up; I was able to, at the touch of the screen, educate myself on the references while I was reading. This interactive part of my experience was an integral part of why this book was such a success for me. I highly recommend reading it on a device so that you could do the same. When I’m reading a physical copy, I always have intentions of looking things up while I’m reading, but honestly, I never do.

It’s my understanding that P. Djèlí Clark is a nom de plume for science-fiction writer Dexter Gabriel. Gabriel is also a historian which explains why this novella is jam-packed with rich, historical elements. I felt like I was getting a solid education on Black history while also enjoying a dark fantasy tale with magical realism and seriously scary horror.

This is also a character-driven story. Clark’s female protagonists are larger-than-life and immediately worthy of emotional investment. I might have fallen in love with a character named Sadie—for obvious reasons, but mostly because she was brave and sassy. The main character, Maryse Boudreaux, is equally loveable.

Maryse is a “chosen one” hero. At some point in her life, she was singled out as a protector and given a magic sword. The sword embodies the war cries and testimonies of martyrs and fighters who have gone before her as they have embarked on similar quests for justice against oppression. Maryse’s specific mission is to rid the world of “Klu Kluxes,” monsters disguised as everyday members of the KKK. Things get tricky for Maryse when a new leader shows up on the scene, amplifying an even darker message of hate.

The stakes are so high in this story and the evil is overwhelmingly powerful and scary. Clark moves this tale along at a breakneck pace with edge-of-your-seat suspense. Every chapter ends with a fresh urgency to continue. I want more for this universe. I hope P. Djèlí Clark has more Maryse Boudreaux stories to tell because, even though Ring Shout felt like a complete book and I was not found wanting, I could see the potential for Maryse’s journey to either continue into more quests/adventures or for the author to write some of the backstories to some of the unusual/unique characters.

Even if we only get Ring Shout out of this universe, it truly is enough. I am enraptured by this book and can’t sing its praises loud enough or long enough. I’ll forever be recommending it as an all-time favorite.

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What I have is beautiful music inspired by struggle and fierce love. What he got ain’t nothing but hateful noise. Not a hint of soul to it.”

I've been meaning to check out P. Djèlí Clark's writing for far too long, and I'm so happy that I finally did, because Ring Shout absolutely blew me away and Clark is a new auto-read author for me, 100%. This novella was incredible! It's packed tight with action, intensity, history, and it all revolves around a trio of badass monster-hunting Black women that I immediately loved upon meeting. It isn't often that I read a book that leaves me feeling genuinely privileged to have experienced it, but Ring Shout is one of those special few.

I truly don't know where to begin with how highly I recommend this book. I loved the characters, the narrative voice, the fantastical elements, and the entire general premise of Ring Shout. Not only was it such a tremendously enjoyable story, but there was the added element of having learned a few things about Black history that I didn't know before. (I've learned since reading the novella that the author is also a historian, so that checks out!)

“Girl, every choice we make is a new tomorrow. Whole worlds waiting to be born.”

I also have to shout out the audiobook narrator, Channie Waites, for going above and beyond. Even when I wanted to read the book visually, I ended up putting my headphones in and listening while I read along with the ebook because the narration added so much extra jazz to the story! (I think this was the first time I'd ever done that, if that tells you what a raving compliment that is from me, someone who doesn't listen to audiobooks particularly often in the first place.)

Seriously, if you haven't picked up Ring Shout yet, do yourself and favor and fix that. Meanwhile, I'll be over here adding all of Clark's other works to my TBR! (Oh, and sincerely hoping that we get another novella in this world, because I was not ready to say goodbye.)

✨ Representation: almost all characters are Black; Chef is queer

✨ Content warnings for: racism, violence, death, body horror, systemic racism, family death/grief, medical trauma

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

———
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[Elle_bow 🩷 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot give this book enough praise! I loved every second of this book! It’s a perfect mix of fantasy and history all rolled into one.

Like there was seriously nothing I didn’t like about this book

[Victor Almeida · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA LEIAM

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Creative and creepy. Definitely a take on the Klan I never would have expected. It combines some actual history with an occult, Lovecraftian, Clive Barker-ish twist.

My 3.5 Stars means I enjoyed, but was not blown away. The story felt forced at times. At others it felt like the author was winking at me saying "see what I did there". Also, the way it was written made it a bit hard for me to get into it at times.

However, I will say that I can tell a lot of horror fans are going to be really into this one. Also, there is something to be said for an epic battle between a black heroine and the Ku Klux Klan (I mean, even with my minor complaints, I was cheering). Because of this, I give it some extra points and am rounding it up to 4 stars.

If you really like gruesome horror (this does not pull punches on the gore) and want to see some historically proven baddies get their comeuppance, this is worth checking out.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phenderson Djèlí Clark always delivers. Period.

Ring Shout is another excellent story, this time set in 1920’s Georgia, where three colored women are taking the fight to the (literal) monsters of the Ku Klux Klan.

It is dark and imaginative, and violent, and very satisfying. It is also extremely cool, because of the once again amazing characters. Is there another (male) author that writes totally bad-ass female characters as perfectly as Clark does? I believe not.

There are several influences that went into what the blurb calls a dark fantasy historical novella. Yeah, I guess you could call it that. But I think the result tilts more towards horror. Either way, Clark took these influences and made them his own. And ultimately came up with something that feels quite unique.

I don’t want to get into plot details, since it is a rather short book. But expect things like monsters dressing as humans, monsters with tentacles, magic swords, rituals involving dance and song – and a movie to indoctrinate people, spirits, supernatural powers, a female gunslinger, a truly evil villain, lots of fighting, lots of banter, history, mythology, hatred, rage, revenge, trauma, gore, humor, friendship. And three ladies that are kicking ass.

It is a powerful story.

I only got a few minor quibbles. At several points in the story the main character is crossing over into other realms, and here and there these scenes were a bit of a problem for the pacing. I was anxious for the main plot to keep moving, because it was so much fun to see Maryse, Sadie and Chef interact with each other, and I also could not wait for some people to get punished for their crimes. Ultimately those parts dovetail satisfyingly with the main plot. But I couldn’t see it at the time of reading.

The other thing that’s holding this back from getting a five-star rating from me is that I had trouble to understand one minor character. I assume that Clark has done a good job with the Gullah accent. But for the life of me I just could not understand what this woman was saying.

Overall though, great fun. And the ending is hinting at a sequel. Oh, how I would love that.

Now a 2020 Nebula and 2021 Hugo finalist for Best Novella. And nower also a winner of the former. :)

This has been a buddy read with Yuna, Lata and Missy in SpecFic Buddy Reads.

_________________
2020 Nebula Award Finalists

Best Novel
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
• The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
• Network Effect by Martha Wells (Tordotcom Publishing)

Best Novella
• Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov (Metaphorosis)
• Finna by Nino Cipri (Tordotcom Publishing)
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom Publishing)
• Ife-Iyoku, Tale of Imadeyunuagbon by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
• The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
• Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom Publishing)

Best Novelette
• Stepsister by Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
• The Pill by Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
• Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
• Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
• Where You Linger by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Shadow Prisons by Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as The Shadow Prison Experiment, Shadow Prisons of the Mind and The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma, Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)

Best Short Story
• Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math by Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
• A Guide For Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
• The Eight-Thousanders by Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20) (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
• My Country Is a Ghost by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)

The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
• Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
• A Game of Fox and Squirrels by Jenn Reese (Holt)
• Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)

________________
2021 Hugo Award Finalists

Best Novel
• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• Network Effect by Martha Wells
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

Best Novella
• Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
• Finna by Nino Cipri
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
• Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Best Novelette
• Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine Issue 34: May/June 2020)
• I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter by Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• The Inaccessibility of Heaven by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine Issue 35: July/August 2020)
• Monster by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 160)
• The Pill by Meg Elison (from Big Girl)
• Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)

Best Short Story
• Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine Issue 32: January/February 2020)
• A Guide For Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
• Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer (Tor. com)
• The Mermaid Astronaut by Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020)
• Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
• Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)

Best Series
• The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
• The Interdependency by John Scalzi
• The Lady Astronaut Universe by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
• October Daye by Seanan McGuire
• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Best Graphic Story or Comic
• Die, Vol. 2: Split the Party, written by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles
• Ghost-Spider, Vol. 1: Dog Days Are Over, written by Seanan McGuire, art by Takeshi Miyazawa and Rosi Kämpe
• Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 2: Edge of Everything, written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Christian Ward
• Monstress, Vol. 5: Warchild, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda
• Once & Future, Vol. 1: The King is Undead, written by Kieron Gillen, iIllustrated by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, lettered by Ed Dukeshire
• Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread is just as good as the first time!
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ebook format 📖

Previous review:

Ring Shout is about fierce black women that are living and surviving in Georgia during the 1920s. The movie The Birth of a Nation is showing across the land and white movements such as the Ku Klux Klan are becoming rampant again.

Maryse, Chef and Sadie are hunting monsters called Ku Kluxes.
Nana Jean, an old Gullah woman who’s all sass and magic is also helping with the hunt and selling her Mama’s Water during the prohibition.

The characters were all three-dimensional and I loved how real and unique they felt.

Ku Kluxes are part of the Klan but they’re different. Something isn’t quite right with the person and our badass monster hunters can see the strange evil lurking below the white robe.

I thought the concept of this book was fantastic!

Besides loving the concept, I also loved the pacing, action and gore. The strange Lovecraftian monsters added to the book and the dialogue was on point.

Definitely check this one out if you like horror and fantasy. This one was a ton of fun to read!

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

👉 Check out my Best books of 2024 on BookTube. 👈



"In my head the chanting of long-dead slaves and bound-up chiefs starts up again. I find myself humming along, lost to the rhythm of my singing blade, as I set about my grisly work."

This southern dark urban fantasy weaves real history with fiction in a story of three women fighting the hate-fueled monsters that drive the KKK. This terrorist group is divided into two parts: the klan, who are human, and the ku kluxes, which are terrifying monsters whose heads come to a sharp bony point that they hide by wearing the infamous white robes.

The protagonist is a woman named Maryse who fights these monsters with a sword that she summons, and while wielding it she can hear the voices of spirits chanting. She’s accompanied by two other women, Chef and Sadie (my personal favorite). Thanks to Sadie's sass I enjoyed a few laughs amid all of the gruesome horror.

Ring Shout is a quick read, yet it offers so much: ghosts, monsters, history, horror, and exquisite writing. Highly recommend!

--

My deepest gratitude to Krishana Davis for recommending this book in her BookTube video 10 of the BEST Thriller, Horror Books by Black Authors.

[jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

“what we owe this world that so despises and brutalizes us? why lift a hand to save it when it ain’t never done a damn thing to save us?”

macon, georgia, 1922. one year after the tulsa massacre.

three black women stand upon a rooftop near a ku klux klan parade, having placed bait for a monster. maryse, our protagonist, spends her time waiting by browsing through a book of folktales; sadie, her hilarious sniper bestie, trades quips with chef, a lanky veteran with tales of europe and good food.

and then the white-hooded, long-clawed, face-shifting monsters descend, and so do they. maryse and her magic sword, sadie and her rifle, and chef with her explosive devices.

clark has done it again. everything he touches turns to gold.

with this novella, he creates a seamless reading experience about three black, badass heroines who go toe-to-toe with eldritch horrors and racial violence, while mixing in horrendous historical events and supernatural elements. he explores race, culture, love, friendship, and community -- while maryse, sadie, and chef bootleg for a regular job, and hunt klu klux klanners on the side.

i won’t ever get tired of harping on about how the fuck he manages it in less than 200 pages.

in this version of 1920s america, the klan has been strengthening its ranks with eldritch entities that feed on hatred and violence. after a conjuring ritual that opened the door between worlds, the supreme grand wizard of the kkk has been letting these creatures take possession of regular klan members, creating an army of monsters that are difficult to spot and even harder to kill.

maryse, sadie, and chef all possess true sight: they can find a klu klux inhabiting a klan member’s body easily. they’ve been fighting them for years, but then a new threat rises from beyond our world: butcher clyde, a bulwark of a man inhabited by something far more sinister.

and he’s hungrier than any ku klux they’ve ever encountered.


© cover art by Henry Sene Yee

there is so much packed into this novella.

first of all, clark beautifully blends folk and gullah magic into his narrative, especially as we get to know more of maryse’s allies and see the titular ring shout at work. there are many spirits and entities at play, pulling maryse into different realms while trying to give her advice on what to do.

the supporting cast in general is great. sadie has an unapologetic sense of humor that made me laugh out loud multiple times, and her banter with chef -- a queer woman -- is amazing. there’s also gullah wise woman nana jean, who’s leading the effort against the klu klux klan; molly, a choctaw biologist who’s studying klu klux corpses; emma, a german-jewish socialist who helps to organize the effort.

the klu kluxes and butcher clyde are appropriately terrifying and disgusting. think eldritch body horror with alien dimensions and inexplicable appendages (and the mouths, good grief), as well as plenty of gore and violence.

this was also my first time reading such present and explicit action scenes from clark and damn, they were good. tense, edge-of-your-seat moments with clear descriptors and motion as well as a keenly felt emotional state from the protagonist. great stuff.

but what made it so punch-to-the-gut good is its emotional and historical depth.

clark blends supernatural horror with real-world horror extremely well, and that is the most unsettling out of anything horrific i’ve mentioned so far. because it only serves to emphasize just how utterly terrifying american history is.

think that comparing klan members and the way they treated their ideology and ranks to supernatural, awe-inspiring powers is just clark bringing in his fantastical elements? think again.

or maybe that an incredibly popular propaganda movie glorifying the racist ideology of the klan and the heroism of the confederacy sounds a tad too outlandish? think again.

perhaps the idea that klan members gathering at some huge stone mountain monument for annual crossburnings and white supremacist conferences is a bit too much? think again.

every time you think you have a grasp on what this book is trying to say, it hits you with another punch to the gut. it made me laugh and it made me cry, and it shows you how ordinary people can turn into monsters very easily.

maryse’s own history and emotional journey take center stage while she keeps crossing paths with butcher clyde, and through her trauma and memory as well as her hopes and relationships, we get to know her better. she’s an easy hero to root for, and i loved how you got a sense of emotional depth and struggle from almost every character in the book.

through that, clark unflinchingly dissects the line between righteous anger and burning hatred, and i think that was the suckerpunch that ended up taking me out. because the ‘twist’ in this is brilliant.

evil serves evil, no matter what it dresses up as.

there are a few criticisms to be had, sure. despite its fast pace, there are some infodump moments that lull the pace. the hero’s journey for maryse is also very by-the-book; clark pulls on formulaic tropes for that. and even though i did very much like the more supernatural sides of the story, at one point i felt the novella’s length got a little cramped by the amount of supernatural entities / realms that kept creeping in.

that said...

this is genuinely one of the coolest action-packed eldritch horror stories i’ve ever read. but i hope i’ve also managed to convey to you that ring shout is so much more than just that.

✎ 5.0 stars.

[Magrat Ajostiernos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estados Unidos, 1922.
El Ku Klux Klan campa a sus anchas mientras tres mujeres de color equipadas con rifles, explosivos y una espada mágica le plantan cara.
¿No es maravilloso el argumento en sí? Pues la novela es igual de fantástica.
Es un libro breve pero una vez más Clark consigue crear la mezcla perfecta entre Historia y fantasía, cargándola de acción y originalidad. Aquí hay de todo, magia, monstruos y seres sobrenaturales (las tres tías que hacen de guía a la protagonista... de verdad, necesitamos un spin off! las amo!) pero en cierta manera Clark consigue que la historia nunca se "desmadre" al darnos cuenta de que lo que está tratando de decirnos el autor es algo muy serio.
Y aún así es una historia con la que principialmente te lo vas a pasar bien, tiene momentos oscurillos cercanos al terror (pero sin dar miedito), personajes geniales y una manera de hablar del racismo y la esclavitud que logra calar al lector.
En fin, una de esas novelas breves que desearías que no terminasen nunca (¿Os suena? Es algo parecido a lo que sucede con 'La maldición del tranvía 015').

***Fantástica traducción y edición por cierto

[TJ ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

-4.5 stars- ☄️

so... this was dope af. a historical fantasy that reimagines ku kluxes as demonic monsters



the whole thing was very Lovecraft Country



but make it full of 💫 black girl magic 💫



the author managed to blend the realism of US black history seamlessly with sci-fi and horror elements.

That’s what happens to a Ku Klux when its killed. Body just crumbles away, as if it don’t belong here—which I assure you it does not. In about twenty minutes won’t be no blood or bones or nothing—just dust. Make it feel like you fighting shadows.

what a *chefs kiss* allegory for fighting racism. from the ku kluxes origins, their appearance, to how they operated, this book meshed perfectly with real history. the release of Birth of a Nation and how it affected attitudes towards black Americans at the time, economic systems and how they help or hurt black Americans, and also... the convos the girl-gang had about the n-word and the 'hard v soft N' were giving me all the life 😂 i liked these characters a lot

“We the trickster—the spider, the rabbit, even the fox. We fool those stronger than us. That’s how we survive. Watch out you don’t get tricked yo’self!”

maryse was a terrific a protagonist, i was pretty impressed how much insight we got into her character and personal development she went through for such a short story

“I set a look on him so fierce he don’t know if I’m God or the devil."

the only reason i'm not giving it the full 5 stars is bc the plot felt a bit rushed. there wasn't really a 'beginning', we were kind of thrown in and at times elements would be added that felt random or convenient, but i think this can mostly be attributed to the length. if the book was longer things would've been more fleshed out. aside from that tho, i loved loved loved this story and all its themes and messages.

ps. the way maryse's three aunties reminded me of my aunties, just talking all kinds of smack and taking no prisoners when it comes to embarrassing me 😭😭 but in that loving way aunties do <33 this book felt so familiar sometimes, it really nailed culture on the head✨

[BookOfCinz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could describe this book in two words it would be MASTERFUL and MAGICAL!

HOW is P. Djeli Clark able to pack well formed worlds, layered characters, history, culture and heavy themes in less than 200 pages? HOW?!!!

Ring Shout is a darkly twisted historical novella set in 1922 in Macon and follows the main character Maryse Boudreaux a black sword swinging woman who I could not get enough of! The story opens with Maryse, Sadie and Chef setting a trap for The Ku Kluxes who are Klan folk who feed on so much hate it infects them and turn them into bone-white demons…. YES! Those are monsters these Black Women are fighting as they increase in numbers in Macon.

Maryse, Sadie and Chef will need reinforcement when D.W. Griffith a sorcerer comes to town ready to unleash a set of Ku Kluxes stronger and filled with way more hate.

Honestly, this is just the tip of the Ring Shout iceberg. P. Djeli Clark is a master when it comes to weaving in history into fantasy and he does it so seamlessly and beautifully. When have you ever read a book about a klansmen who are monsters (they really are monsters) and they get hunted and killed by three badass Black Women- these are the stories we need to read more about!

I have said this before and I won’t stop saying, P. Djeli Clark is a MAGICIAN! His ability to write full atmospheric stories in less than 200 pages is UNMMATED! I inhaled this book, I was transported to the dark, starry Georgia night, I felt I was there with those warriors!

If you are in the mood to read something different, this is it!!!!